Sonos Trueplay

[The_Lhc]

A single Play 5 works in stereo, There is a single woofer, but 2 speakers on the left firing the left channel left and two on the right firing right.  Works pretty well in stereo if you are relatively close to it.  I have one in my study just above my computer screen.  It is surprisingly good.

It is naturally outclassed by my Arcam and Spendor speakers, and these in turn are outclassed by my new Devialet Phantoms.  Now these may well show the future direction of HiFi.  All the benefits of Sonos pluks the sound quality of huge floor-standers.

You're talking about the old play:5, the new one has a different layout of speakers.

 

[Andrew17321]

I am just back from the real thing: a cello and piano concert in a beautiful octagonal hall. Beethoven and Rachmaninov Cello Sonatas. I was just 4 metres from the cello. No sound system will ever get close to that experience!

 

[The_Lhc]

So what you're saying is you have no experience, even second-hand, of the system in question? Expected better of you if I'm honest.

So what you're saying is, by inferrence that I'm wrong just because i haven't heard it, is that a mono £300 powered wifi speaker with built in DSP has the potential to lay to waste everything that's ever come before it, including defying physics. If you're not saying that, then we probably agree on this more than we disagree. And as for being embryonic, of course it is. Twenty years time we'll look back on these things with the same kind of quaintness we look at pre-2000 mobile phones but at the time we thought they were high-tech porridge-knitters.

It's not mono, it's stereo on its own, and as said, two paired together will give true stereo. And they're not £300, they're now £429, so a pair is getting on for 900 quid, they're active, with dsp room correction. You know, exactly like meridian do it but without the ridiculous costs, which Sonos don't need to charge because they know they'll sell in hundreds of thousands, rather than just the hundreds.

Read the articles coming out, there's some real noise being made about these already.

Either way, you still don't know anything about them, so you can't simply write them off at this stage.

 

[MajorFubar]

pretty sure I haven't said anything that wrote them off. In fact I've repeatedly said in several posts that they probably represent great value for money, possibly point the direction to which hifi will head, and are a welcome addition to the arsenal of ways we can already choose to listen to our music. I requested just a sensible call for perspective.

 

[The_Lhc]

pretty sure I haven't said anything that wrote them off. In fact I've repeatedly said in several posts that they probably represent great value for money, possibly point the direction to which hifi will head, and are a welcome addition to the arsenal of ways we can already choose to listen to our music. I requested just a sensible call for perspective.

The point is there is no perspective without experience, there is only prejudice. Once you've heard them THEN you write them off, not before, anything else is your own preconceptions talking, not facts.

 

[MajorFubar]

The point is there is no perspective without experience, there is only prejudice

Rubbish. We're not talking about how the short fat lad at school outran the odds-on-favourite sprinter in the 100 meters just because on the day he found the energy to overcome his physical limitations with sheer guts and determination. It's a speaker for goodness sake. You may as well say I'm prejudiced to suggest a pair of speakers ten times the price of my own sound better, but I can make a general educated guess that they bloody well should do. It's not prejudiced to make broadbrush assumptions. The fact that I pulled-up the OP's original post, which on the face of it seemed to suggest all the high-end hifi manufacturers may as well nail-up their shutters because Sonos has launched a new active speaker (which I do accept is in fact stereo, if you sit within 12" of it like an 80s ghettoblaster), has been blown completely out of proportion.

 

[The_Lhc]

For gruds sake major, two points, "stereo pair", that's real stereo, stop banging on about what a single unit can do.

Secondly, do you really think that "high end" speakers need to cost tens of thousands of pounds? The only reason Meridian sell their dsp active speakers for that sort of money is because they only sell a handful of them. Sonos have been developing this speaker for THREE YEARS. How much do you think that costs? Millions of dollars, probably easily as much as Meridian do but Sonos can price it low because they know they'll sell tens if not hundreds of thousands of them.

Anyway, it doesn't change the fact that you've never heard them and yet you're quite happy to say they'll be rubbish anyway. That's practically the definition of prejudice!

 

[MajorFubar]

Anyway, it doesn't change the fact that you've never heard them and yet you're quite happy to say they'll be rubbish anyway. That's practically the definition of prejudice!

Whatever, LHC. Feel free to read into my posts whatever prejudices you think are there. You intentionally choose to misinterpret me and misquote me, because at NO POINT have I said they'll be rubbish. Not in any of my posts on this thread, or anywhere else. But I don't particularly care anymore. A lot of the time I generally agree wth your posts because we seem to share similar opinions and both have a short fuse with those who are shall we say challenged in the basic common sense department. But at other times, sad to say, you're just plain and simply an arse.

 

[The_Lhc]

"They're nothing better than milkfloats", your words, in a comparison with electric vehicles, what is a milkfloat if it's not rubbish, 60 year old technology? That's a hugely unfair comparison for a product that is doing something that no other product in its class or at its price point has done before, but of course you know better, even without listening to it.

One of us is being an arse here but it's not me. I'm just asking you to listen to the damn thing before making a judgment, I don't think that's unreasonable.

 

[MajorFubar]

"They're nothing better than milkfloats", your words, in a comparison with electric vehicles, what is a milkfloat if it's not rubbish, 60 year old technology? That's a hugely unfair comparison for a product that is doing something that no other product in its class or at its price point has done before, but of course you know better, even without listening to it.

One of us is being an arse here but it's not me. I'm just asking you to listen to the damn thing before making a judgment, I don't think that's unreasonable.

You know damn well you're quoting me out of context, and you also know damn well in what context that was said. To hit back atcha what you said about me earlier, I expected better from you. And yes, quite possibly when I they come out I'll go listen. Why not. Good to keep abreast of new things.

 

[Andy Clough]

Calm down guys, no need to get personal.

 

[Infiniteloop]

I am just back from the real thing: a cello and piano concert in a beautiful octagonal hall. Beethoven and Rachmaninov Cello Sonatas. I was just 4 metres from the cello. No sound system will ever get close to that experience!

True.

But you can only hear that experience once and not in the comfort, convenience and privacy of your own living room.

 

[The_Lhc]

"They're nothing better than milkfloats", your words, in a comparison with electric vehicles, what is a milkfloat if it's not rubbish, 60 year old technology? That's a hugely unfair comparison for a product that is doing something that no other product in its class or at its price point has done before, but of course you know better, even without listening to it.

One of us is being an arse here but it's not me. I'm just asking you to listen to the damn thing before making a judgment, I don't think that's unreasonable.

You know damn well you're quoting me out of context, and you also know damn well in what context that was said. To hit back atcha what you said about me earlier, I expected better from you. And yes, quite possibly when I they come out I'll go listen. Why not. Good to keep abreast of new things.

How is it out of context? The OP comapred the new Play:5 and Trueplay to the Tesla electric cars, you replied tehy were nothing more than milkfloats, what other context is there?

Here's a comparison, I don't know if you read Terry Pratchett Major but if you do perhaps you saw the article in the Guardian shortly after he died, it was from a book reviewer who opened his piece by saying "I've never read Terry Pratchett and I never will, life is too short for mediocre potboilers, he is NOT a genius". He was (rightly) vilified for writing off an author's entire body of work without ever actually reading it. Now, what's the difference between that and what you've done here? I can't see any.

 

[Paul.]

Here's a comparison, I don't know if you read Terry Pratchett Major but if you do perhaps you saw the article in the Guardian shortly after he died, it was from a book reviewer who opened his piece by saying "I've never read Terry Pratchett and I never will, life is too short for mediocre potboilers, he is NOT a genius". He was (rightly) vilified for writing off an author's entire body of work without ever actually reading it. Now, what's the difference between that and what you've done here? I can't see any.

Maybe chalk this one down to the fact the Internet is a terrible medium for discussion?

To be fair, all major has actually done is assume a small plastic box can't beat a big wooden box. Maybe he is wrong, maybe the new play 5 is different from all the other small plastic boxes that don't sound as good as big wooden boxes, but comparing him to that **** who said those things about Pratchett strikes me as a bit of a straw man, because the small plastic box industry has s history of not sounding as good as big wooden boxes.

 

[Andrew17321]

I am just back from the real thing: a cello and piano concert in a beautiful octagonal hall. Beethoven and Rachmaninov Cello Sonatas. I was just 4 metres from the cello. No sound system will ever get close to that experience!

True.

But you can only hear that experience once and not in the comfort, convenience and privacy of your own living room.

I can still hear it in my head. Replaying a recording of the concert would probably be a dissappointment. I can still hear and feel an outstanding concert of Verdi's Requiem which I heard in Dublin more than 2 years ago - I have not risked playing a CD of that piece since. Sure, I play some CDs over and over again, in comfort at home, but they are not as enthralling as the real thing.

As I am getting older and less able (willing) to travel, I rely more on listening at home, and so go for a good reproduction system, currently Devialet Phantoms. But it is the music that is important, not the system. (I guess I am not an audiophile and maybe should not be on this forum?)

"Privacy" is rather a negative when listening to music; the shared experience of listening at a concert hightens the effect, and rapport between the audience and musicians is very real and adds to the musical communication and overall experience. But true, I can listen at home in my comfortable, tatty old clothes.

 

[bigboss]

Devialet Phantom does look awesome. I assume you can connect Sonos:Connect to it?

 

[gowiththeflow]

Devialet Phantom does look awesome. I assume you can connect Sonos:Connect to it?

The Phantom and its Spark app are being developed into a stand alone streaming system, but the Spark software is still a work in progress and users appear to be a little frustrated by its glitches and relative lack of more advanced functionality.

Integrated Music services are currently limited to Tidal, Qobuz and Deezer, but more are supposed to be in the pipeline.

There is always the option to use another streaming system, such as Sonos etc, etc, plugged into the Phantom set-up via Toslink and just use the Spark app to control the basic Phantom functions, such as volume etc. It appears that a number of Phantom users are doing just that until Devialet have improved Spark.

Phantom also now has Bluetooth capabilty for streaming from a phone/tablet/laptop.

/

 

[matt49]

There is always the option to use another streaming system, such as Sonos etc, etc, plugged into the Phantom set-up via Toslink and just use the Spark app to control the basic Phantom functions, such as volume etc. It appears that a number of Phantom users are doing just that until Devialet have improved Spark.

Yep, I use a Sonos Connect. Nice and simple.

 

[MajorFubar]

But it is the music that is important, not the system. (I guess I am not an audiophile and maybe should not be on this forum?)

Never lose sight of the fact the system is supposed to be a means to an end, and that end is enjoying the music. Sounds like you're ideally suited to be here imo.

 

[Andrew17321]

Devialet Phantom does look awesome. I assume you can connect Sonos:Connect to it?

I too use a Sonos Connect to optically feed my Phantoms from my NAS and internet radio. I also use the Phantoms directly via Ethernet to Qobus at HR. So, effectively I have a Super-Sonos.